"Mobile companies at the 3GSM technology event in Barcelona will showcase their expertise and innovative services to crack the international market.

Cibenix creates an offline portal on the subscriber's handset. "If you can't get subscribers to come to the portal, then why not bring the portal to the device," says Andrew Robertson, claiming that customers have seen increases in revenues of up to 400-500 per cent by implementing their "on-device portal"."

"Several Irish companies, including ChangingWorlds, Zamano and Cibenix, are involved in content management, providing software that makes it easier for customers to access content and, hopefully, helps boost usage and turnover.

Cibenix chief executive Gary McCollum is promising to do just that. The five-year-old company's content management software is being used in trials by six operators, including Hutchison and Vodafone ... McCollum said it has been approached by several venture capitalists and large software companies eager to invest.

"The bigger guys are looking at what we're doing and seeing that there's an opportunity and a real future, " he said.

"The keys to making the mobile Internet work ... are making phones easy to use and keeping their operating systems and networks open so that companies can experiment with services and allow consumers to choose.

Software companies like Nellymoser in Arlington, Massachusetts, and Cibenix in Dublin are providing more efficient ways for content providers and mobile operators to deliver and sell multimedia services."

"Operators are missing the vital link in the delivery value chain – the ability to bring their content offerings direct to the subscriber’s device, thus reducing (or eliminating completely) the need to browse the online portal. With such an approach, the operator becomes “Unplugged”, and the mobile device itself becomes the storefront for mobile content and services."

"...we are seeing operators meeting these challenges and successfully rolling out a range of innovative and effective solutions. The results so far have been hugely encouraging, and we can expect the unplugged approach to play an increasingly pivotal role in the operator’s evolving content and services strategy."

Andrew Robertson - VP Product Management, Cibenix

"Users will only warm to mobile content if it's easy to find, so on-handset portals that update branded content automatically could be the way forward."

"Eirborne has been an off-portal destination since day one. The company has seen a substantial increase in content downloads since implementing Cibenix software in September 2005 to create and maintain on-handset storefronts, allowing users to access and preview content before they purchase it."

"'We used to count two downloads per subscriber per month; now we see seven to eight downloads,' says Eirborne director Gerard O'Keefe. More importantly, more users are return buyers."

"The industry is witnessing the adoption of On-Device Portals (ODPs), a new generation of products which deliver content on the mobile phone through the use of a software client application"

"The ODP market is now poised for aggressive growth and is forecast to reach a value of $1.4 billion by 2009"

"Cibenix ... has been growing its technology portfolio, and in the last year has gained industry traction with several launches on Symbian and Java devices"

"Cibenix's software acts as a kind of shop window on mobile phones, making it quicker and easier for phone users to find services. It is a very valuable piece of real estate for mobile operators ... There are a lot of very useful data services on phones, but most people don't know how to access them.”

Cibenix nominated for prestigious Handango Champions Award.

"It is always a pleasure to honor and reward these extraordinary software development companies and their exceptional applications," said Randy Eisenman, president and chief executive officer of Handango. "Our customers hand-selected these finalists as the best-of-the-best from Handango's catalog of more than 50,000 applications. These finalists should be proud of their accomplishment in such a dynamic industry."

"Cibenix ... will expand into the US and Asia after landing six-figure deals with two international customers in the past three months"

An end to the divide between on and offline data services

"Increasing ARPU, average revenue per user, is Cibenix's goal - awareness of data services among end users is very low and accessing these services still isn’t intuitive"

High-tech home showcased in new Digital Hub exhibition

"Visitors will have a chance to see emerging technology for data services delivered over mobile phones. "It's about putting these services in front of the user and making it entertaining for them," explained Mike Brady of Cibenix."

Developer Spotlight - Cibenix Sells 175,000 Applications

"Cibenix ... has reported more than 175,000 downloads of its Active Desk program, which lets end users customize their mobile phone displays."

"The success stories with Symbian OS just keep on coming. For example, Cibenix has had as much as 175 000+ downloads of its Active Desk for Symbian OS since 2001"

"So what’s next for Cibenix? We have been building strongly on our successes. In addition to ONE of Austria, Cibenix this summer closed a high profile, global Mobile Operator as a second reference customer."

"Cibenix ... plans to expand after raising about €1.25 million in funding and winning deals with two international customers."

New media blooming in historic Dublin district

"Red-hot games, amazing mobile phone services, dazzling animations: many of these could have a "made in Dublin" stamp on them in the future. A digital stamp, of course."

"Mr Garry McCollum, a graduate of Queens University Belfast, harbours grand ambitions to grab a large slice of the mobile phone software applications market."

"Ireland still has a significant opportunity in [the mobile] sector due to the high-degree of research and market strength in technological enablers as well as experience in the design and authoring of digital content located here."

The Sporty One
(PDF, 5.7 MB - article is on third last page)

"Austrian operator One, together with Cibenix, makes sure Austrian sports fans can enjoy their sports wherever they are by using a service called One Smile."